(F) Underground! -- APA

[KEG]

I never liked the square corners in modular boxes. So I started building a cave, to run my trains trough.



Used some liquid foam from a rattle can plus some thinner. No colour yet, exept a light black mist from a can. Powdered some rust pigments into the wet paint.

How big are those mouseholes?

Big enough for my Gn15 trains!







Have Fun

Juergen

[KEG]

Have Fun

Juergen

[KEG]

It is about time, to get some light into my caves. At the moment I can only effort to hire a worker with a flickering torch:



More pictures of my APA Box caves are here: http://www.die-feldbahnsinnigen.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&p=3287#p3287

I used mainly a mixture of salt and flour on a styofoam base for the rocks. Dyed the mictures with pigments or / and Nesquick chocolate powder. Takes about a week to dry but is cheap and amazing.

Have Fun

Juergen

[KEG]

I found the mixture at the local Kindergarten. After all, it only costs less than one Euro for 2 Kilos of modelling material. Some folks say, it tends to collect moisture from the surrounding after drying, so I might have to seal it with a suitable varnish.

At the moment I am trying to find suitable lighting. With room / exibition light it is too dark and too grey inside of an APA Box. On the other hand, bright flood light is not really something, you´d expect in a cave.





I suppose, light and colour design will keep me busy for a while. One thing is certain, it is almost impossible, to show the beauty of a cave on photographs. Whenever you change the light, colours and shadows are changing as well in a dramatic way.

Meanwhile an earthquake broke away part of one of the cave´s walls.



The inside of the APA Box looks a lot larger now.

Have Fun

Juergen

[KEG]

I do have sources for special effect LEDs, but do not really aim at a Disco or Disney Land lighting.



A window or an arch with a picture of the world outside is a common theatre trick to create the illusion of depth. After all, APA Boxes Dioramas are only (very small) 3-D pictures, a miniature stage more or less.

In my case, I simply glued a print of an early 19th century painting (Andreas Achenbach, 1834) to the rear wall, covered it with plastic from a shopping bag, before modelling the flour / salt rocks. When dry, I removed the plastic cover to reveal the backdrop.

Have Fun

Juergen.

[KEG]

Recently I tried to combine the end loops of my deskop layout with an APA Box, I built 2 years ago. .

http://www.die-feldbahnsinnigen.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=562&p=6397#p6397

The idea is, to have an extra track, maybe with a fiddle yard, behind the box(es).

Have Fun

Juergen

[Maddog]

I found the mixture at the local Kindergarten. After all, it only costs less than one Euro for 2 Kilos of modelling material. Some folks say, it tends to collect moisture from the surrounding after drying, so I might have to seal it with a suitable varnish.

At the moment I am trying to find suitable lighting. With room / exibition light it is too dark and too grey inside of an APA Box. On the other hand, bright flood light is not really something, you´d expect in a cave.





I suppose, light and colour design will keep me busy for a while. One thing is certain, it is almost impossible, to show the beauty of a cave on photographs. Whenever you change the light, colours and shadows are changing as well in a dramatic way.

Meanwhile an earthquake broke away part of one of the cave´s walls.



The inside of the APA Box looks a lot larger now.

Have Fun

Juergen

Try looking at some photos of Carlsbad Caverns for ideas (http://www.americansouthwest.net/new_mexico/carlsbad_caverns/national_park.html).

[KEG]

Thanks for the hint. But I gave my two underground cave APA Boxes away.
For my purposes, the APA Boxes proofed to be too small.

We are using larger boxes for our diorama modules. http://www.die-feldbahnsinnigen.de/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=1710


Have Fun

Juergen